Online book club broadens options for CHB readers
A Central Hawke’s Bay woman with a love of all things books has started a book club for CHB’s reading community.
But you can forget the fusty old idea of all reading the same book (or just reading the back cover if it’s a boring one) and then sitting about discussing it.
This is a book club with a difference. First of all it’s on Facebook, and secondly you get to read whatever you like.
Alanna Barkle was looking at Book Tok — an app that attracts book lovers from all over the world.
“And I thought — let’s do something online for our local community, something that can get our book lovers talking to each other about books, recommending good reads — let’s get a book club online . . . I didn’t realise it would be so popular!”
Alanna started The Book Nook on Facebook in the first week of January and before long it had 330 members.
“We’re on there talking about books, reviewing books, seeing what everyone else is reading . . . books are so much more accessible now that we can read on our phones, listen to audiobooks . . . so it’s nice to bring likeminded people together to talk about something we enjoy so much.
“Niche book clubs where everyone reads the same book and then they physically get together are less accessible. People get much more excited about sharing books they have read and really loved.”
Then Alanna bumped into a reader who had “heaps of books at home she didn’t know what to do with”.
“I thought — maybe we should do something to link people with books — to people who want books.”
The Food Basket happened to have a handy closed-in trailer that they offered to place outside their premises at the community rooms in Kitchener St. Donated books can be popped in there at any time, and
Alanna and her helpers sort them. Some will go to the CHB Lions Bookarama, while others will feature on a Book Nook stall at CHB’s markets.
“We had our first stall at the Art Deco market at Russell Park recently and it was great,” Alanna says. “It kept the books affordable and brought like-minded booklovers together and we made new friends.”
The stall also featured “a blind date with a book” . . . books wrapped in brown paper, with handwritten clues as to what was inside.
“We do get distracted by what’s on the cover, so this was a bit of fun and a way for people to discover a new author or a new genre.”
The funds raised will go towards book-related events in conjunction with CHB’s libraries.
The first Book Nook event is planned for this winter, date to be advised. “Winter is the time when we all want to curl up with a cuppa and a really good book, so that’s what we have planned,” says Alanna.